Hershey's Kiss
by UnwieldyInk
Summary: Solangelo Week- Day 6- Swap / Just another godswap au! Zeus!Nico x Hermes!Will feat. Poseidon!Jason


"You've got a crush," was the first thing Jason said as he sat down opposite Nico.

"What? No!" Nico immediately responded, shoving another bite of scrambled eggs in his mouth. "That's ridiculous."

The son of Poseidon grinned. "Yeah. Ridiculously _adorable_. You should've told me, I can help you get a date with him!"

"It's too early for this, Jason. Can you at least let me get a meal in before you start haggling me?"

Jason laughed. "C'mon, Nico. Everyone sees the way you look at that Hermes kid. You're clearly madly in love with him. Just let me set you up."

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"C'mon, I can get Leo to help! He loves that matchmaking stuff!"

"I don't want anyone, Aphrodite kid or otherwise, messing with my personal life! And if you insist on going to an Aphrodite kid, please pick anyone but Valdez."

Jason laughed again. "Okay, okay, I'll back off. But you should ask him out. He clearly likes you back."

Nico shook his head. "He does not."

"Of course he does! How could he not fall in love with the _leader_ , the _hero_ , the _son of Zeus_ -"

"Jason. Shut. Up." Nico's face was bright red. "Just let me eat my breakfast in peace, please?"

Jason stood up, tousling Nico's hair and earning a static shock. "Ow!" He pulled his hand back, and Nico smirked at him, satisfied. "I'm getting you an anti-static spray for Christmas," Jason grumbled, rubbing his hand.

Nico let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as Jason walked away. The rest of breakfast passed by uneventfully, but as Nico was slipping out of the mess hall, hoping to get back to his cabin before someone could drag him away to go do archery or canoeing or some similarly horrible camp activity, he bumped into someone. That someone being Will Solace.

"Hey, Nico." Will gave him a small smile, and a nod that flipped a lock of golden hair out of his face. Nico tried to straighten his denim jacket as subtly as possible.

"Hi."

"Walk with me?" Will gestured vaguely into the grassy fields of camp, which were covering in mist in the chilly late autumn morning. Nico nodded, and kept up with Will as he started walking. Their shoulders pressed together. Nico, unsure of what to do with his hands, stuck them safely into his pockets. Will didn't say anything. Neither did Nico. Without meaning to, he started thinking about what Jason had said.

Was he really that obvious? Jason said that _everyone_ knew. Did that everyone include Will? Was Will just being nice to him because he could tell that Nico had a crush, and wanted to let him down softly?

Because Nico did have a crush. A crush. That's all it was. A brief period of shallow infatuation. Nothing more. He was not, as Jason said, 'madly in love'.

But still, his cheeks felt warm every time Will smiled at him. When Will and some of the other Hermes kids pranked him, he'd found he couldn't stay mad at the blond son of Hermes. In fact, he'd been sort of flattered that Will tried to hard to annoy him. When he'd learned that Will wanted to travel the world someday, he sat for hours in front of Will's maps and plans, listening to him blabber on. Did he really care about obscure monuments that he'd never heard of in countries that he'd only barely heard of? Not really. But Will was so excited about it that it was impossible to stop listening.

Maybe that did mean he was in love. Or maybe it was just a crush. Nico didn't know, didn't even really care, he just wanted to know if Will-

"Wanna kiss?" Will asked suddenly, yanking Nico out of his thoughts. Nico stopped in his tracks, his face bright red.

"What?!" he yelped. Will grinned and pulled something silver out of his pocket.

"Hershey's kiss," he said, holding up the chocolate. "What were you thinking of, Di Angelo?" His voice dripped with mock innocence. Then he laughed, and offered the kiss to Nico, who took it silently.

He should've known. Will _always_ had Hershey kisses with him. It was like he had a lifetime supply hidden somewhere. Will was probably super weirded out that Nico thought he meant, like… _kiss_ kiss. Oh my gods, if he didn't know that Nico liked him before, he definitely knew now! Nico felt like slamming his head against a wall. Why was he such an idiot?

But to his relief, Will punched his arm lightly and said, "Heh, gotcha. I- I was kidding." He sounded nervous, as if afraid that _he_ had done something wrong. Nico rolled his eyes and unwrapped the chocolate as they started walking again.

"This thing is half melted. How long have you had it in there?"

Will fished one out for himself and shrugged. "Few days. What does it matter whether it's melted or not? Chocolate is chocolate."

"Can't argue with that," Nico replied, popping it in his mouth.

The two of them kept walking for a little while longer, mostly making small talk or complaining about gossip. When they ended up back at the cabins, Will gave Nico a little wave goodbye, and then started to walk towards the Hermes cabin- which was in the opposite direction of the Zeus cabin. A thought popped into Nico's head, and before he could stop himself, he said: "Wait."

Will turned back to face him. Nico glanced around them quickly, making sure no one was in earshot. They were behind the cabins, away from the widely traversed paths. Nico hesitated for a moment, then blurted out: "Do you wanna sneak out tonight?"

Will's eyebrows shot up. "Sneak out?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"Like- sneak out of camp."

Will had a sort of mystified smile on his face, but he looked interested. "Where would we go?"

"I- uh, I don't know," Nico admitted, feeling that familiar blush creep up his face once again. "I- I have places that I go sometimes, but I don't know if you'll be interested in them. I just thought… I don't know."

Will took a step closer to him. "You sneak out often?" Nico shrugged, and Will whistled lowly. "Wow. I didn't realize you were such a rebel, Di Angelo." He smirked, crossing his arms.

"I can fly. I would be dumb to not take advantage of it."

Will had gotten quite a bit closer to Nico by this point, but was grinning. "Alright then. Midnight. I'll hop out of that window right next to my bed. Meet me outside of my cabin, and you can take me to these places you apparently sneak out to all the time."

"Uh. O-Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. See you then."

Will started backing up, and Nico wasn't sure if he was imagining the redness of Will's cheeks or not. "See you then," Will echoed. Then he turned and speed walked over to his cabin.

Nico was grinning as he marched back to his own.

.

.

11:54. Will layed in bed, literally watching the clock. He peered out of the window. No Nico yet.

He'd insisted on keeping that window open tonight, claiming to his siblings that he liked the breeze. Then, after everyone had settled down, he changed out of his pyjamas as quietly as he could (which wasn't quiet enough for Austin, who was in the bunk below him and kicked him several times). Now, he had the blanket tucked around his shoulders, and was clutching a bag underneath the covers. All he had to do was wait for 12:00.

The next six minutes felt like six hours, but when his alarm clock finally flipped to midnight, he sat up, slowly pushing the blanket off of him. It was so dark out that he couldn't tell if Nico was there or not; he couldn't even see the wall of the Hephaestus cabin only a few feet away.

He had one leg out the window when he heard Kayla's voice whisper "What're you gonna do?"

He stared at his kleptomaniac sister's bunk, right next to his, like a deer caught in headlights. He quickly thought of the answer he assumed would please her most. "Steal some stuff."

She sat bolt upright. "Can I come?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"...Because."

"Because why?"

Will curled a hand into a fist. "Please be quieter. I don't wanna wake the whole cabin up."

Her voice dropped. "Okay, okay, fine. But why can't I come?"

Will sighed. "I'm going somewhere with Nico," he admitted.

Kayla's face cracked into a slow smile, which looked eerily like a skeleton in the pale moonlight. "Ohhhh," she whispered. "I see how it is. Have fun, then."

"It's not like that!" Will whispered urgently. "We're just gonna walk- er, fly- around, I swear."

"Mmhm." She flopped back in her bed. "Sure. That's why you're sneaking out at midnight, when you could just walk around during the day."

"It's not-!"

"Shhh. You'd better go, Romeo. Don't wanna keep your boyfriend waiting."

"He's not my-" Will took a deep breath. "Okay, fine, whatever. Just please don't tell anyone about this?"

Kayla pantomimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key. "Your secret boyfriend is safe with me."

Will scoffed as he slipped out of the window.

"Will?" Nico's voice whispered.

"Hey," Will whispered back. He blinked, and slowly, the shape of the son of Zeus' face came into view. Nico gave him a smile.

"Ready to fly?"

"Yeah. Do I have to grab onto you or anything?"

Nico laughed, his cheeks darkening. "Nah. I control the winds, so I can just have them hold you up, too."

Will nodded, and before he knew it, he was hovering ten feet in the air. He slammed a hand over his mouth to keep from screeching and flailed around. Nico grabbed his arm.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He'd stopped whispering now. "It's okay. You're not gonna fall. It's okay." He slipped a hand into Will's. "Just relax. Let the winds carry you."

Will's brain had stopped working the minute Nico's hand started holding onto his own, but he managed a nod. Nico sped them towards the camp border, and Will tried not to think about the fact that he was holding Nico Di Angelo's hand. Oh gods. Nico di Angelo was holding his hand. _A Whole New World_ was annoyingly playing on repeat inside his head as they soared over the cabins.

When they passed Thalia's spring, Will asked, "So where are we going, anyways?"

"Well, there's this highway that I like to go to a lot," Nico said. "It's not particularly exciting, but it's a good place to take pictures, and just a nice place to sit and think."

"Oh yeah, your photography thing. Is that why you sneak out so often?"

"Most of the time, yeah. Sometimes it's just because I'm bored."

Will laughed. "That's fair." He went back to watching the ground pass by beneath them, and it seemed like only a few more minutes until Nico landed them safely on…

"A billboard?" Will asked. "Why are we on a billboard?"

"Because it's cool," Nico replied. "It's windy, and you can watch the cars go by, and we're not supposed to be up here so anyone who sees us will be super confused-"

Will laughed. "That's so chaotic neutral. I love it."

"Thanks?" Nico gave Will a small smile.

Now that the streetlights from the highway illuminated them, Will could see what Nico was wearing. And, wow. He had a holographic jacket on, and a black shirt underneath, with ripped black jeans. To top it all off, he seemed to have drawn on his high tops with a glow-in-the-dark marker, because little green swirls and planets decorated the rim. Will laughed a little. "That jacket is a look," he said. Still, in nothing but his everyday T shirt and shorts, he felt slightly underdressed.

Nico tugged the holo jacket a little tighter around himself. "I know it looks ridiculous," he mumbled. "Thought I could pull it off. I don't know."

"No no no, you do pull it off!" Will insisted. "It's not ridiculous! I meant a look as a good thing, I swear."

Nico laughed a little. "Alrighty then, Solace."

"So…" Will kicked a pebble-sized chunk of metal off of the rim of the billboard, watching it disappear into the darkness below. He'd never been afraid of heights, but the distance from the ground was dizzying.

Of course, the boy he was standing next to was dizzying, too. His eyes flicked back up to Nico, who was staring down at the cars passing by pensively. The reflected headlights glinted in his irises. Despite himself, Will thought about Nico holding his hand. He'd slipped their fingers together, just like that, like it was no big deal. Will tapped his hand on the side of his leg anxiously, wondering if he could take Nico's hand again.

No, probably not. Nico had just held his hand because they were flying, and Will didn't know what he was doing. It didn't mean that Nico liked him or whatever.

It didn't mean anything.

Just like how Nico's stolen glances in the mess hall didn't mean anything. The gossip coming from surprisingly reliable sources didn't mean anything. The way Nico's face had turned red that afternoon when Will offered him a kiss didn't. Mean. Anything.

Although, that moment in particular had been strangely satisfying. Some feeling that Will didn't know how to describe bloomed in his stomach at the thought that _he_ could make Nico di Angelo _blush_. And he wanted to see Nico blush again.

"You really do look nice," Will said softly. Nico's eyes snapped to Will's, his cheeks turning pink. That feeling filled Will up from the inside again, this time crawling up to his lungs.

"Um, thanks," Nico mumbled. He turned away rapidly, lifting up his bag. "Are you hungry? It has been a few hours since we ate dinner."

Will was not, but didn't want to refuse, so he smiled and accepted the sandwich that was handed to him.

 _This is how you flirt, right?_ Will thought as the two of them sat down. _Compliments, accepting everything they suggest… what else…_ He tried to recall a talk about flirting that he'd been given years ago by his older brother, Lee. The whole thing had been a joke, but it had actually contained some useful advice. _Excessive touching. That was one of them._

And that was something he was definitely willing to comply with. His heart jumped at the idea of holding Nico's hand again, but… no. Slow down. Don't want to freak him out.

Oh, Will so badly did not want to blow his chance with Nico Di Angelo. If this even was a chance. He still couldn't tell.

So then, instead of linking his finger's through Nico's like he was itching to, Will simply slid close to him. Nico stiffened slightly as their thighs pressed against each other. Will winced, leaning away. To his surprise, though, Nico shifted to make them even closer.

Okay, Will couldn't be imagining this. He couldn't. This had to mean something.

"So," Will said again. He suddenly became very aware of his legs dangling over a twenty foot drop. "Um, you won't let me fall, right?"

Nico gave a burst of laughter. "Hmm, I don't know," he said. "It would at least get rid of your annoying jokes."

"Hey, I haven't played a prank on you in, like, six months!"

Nico hummed in agreement… somewhat sadly? "No, you haven't." He set down his half-eaten sandwich. Will did the same. "Why did you stop?"

 _Because I fell in love with you._ "I don't know… I just thought you were tired of it."

Nico sat silently for a minute. "...No." His voice was soft, almost like he was afraid of being heard. "I could never be tired of you."

Will's heart was beating so hard, he was positive Nico could hear it. "I- Nico, I-" He wished he could think of something to say, but how could he, when his brain was practically screaming?

Nico was blushing again. Will was too gobsmacked to derive any sort of pleasure from it. "Sorry," Nico mumbled. And then, louder, in a very clear I-Am-Changing-The-Subject-Now tone, "So tell me about your plans to rule the world or whatever?"

"I- I-" Will swallowed. "I don't want to rule it. Just travel around it. Like, my dad, you know, the god of travel. So I wanna. Do that. Travel."

"You have a way with words," Nico said sarcastically.

"Shut up," Will muttered, feeling his face heating up.

Nico grinned. "You're blushing," he said, leaning closer.

"N-No I'm n-n…" Will trailed off, distracted by Nico's dark brown eyes. He moved to take Nico's hand, but as he did, their fingers brushed, and a violent spark momentarily lit up in their hands. Will yanked his hand away on instinct.

"Sorry!" Nico said immediately, drawing his own hand back, too. "I didn't mean to- are you okay? I'm sorry."

Will laughed as he rubbed his tingling hand. "Jeez. I think that was enough to light up a light bulb."

Nico smiled. "Oh, easily."

"Wow. We have literal sparks flying between us. How much more cliche can we get?"

"I'm pretty sure actual electricity isn't the cliche."

"Close enough."

Nico smiled lightly, and then, without looking Will in the eye, intertwined their fingers. No sparks this time. Will let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Nico's palm was soft. When his thumb started drawing slow circles on the back of Will's hand, Will almost fainted. He felt like he was burning up from the inside, despite the freezing wind biting at them both.

"You're shaking." Nico looked at Will's trembling arms. "Are you cold?"

"No," Will breathed. "I just can't believe this is happening."

Nico bit his lip, smiling. "Will…"

"Yeah?" They were facing each other now, their noses millimeters apart.

"I… can I kiss you?"

Will nodded, and Nico gently closed the distance between them. His hand let go of Will's to slide up his arm and wrap around his neck, while his other hand drifted up to cup Will's cheek. Will's hands, balled into fists, were resting on Nico's thighs. Will forgot how to breathe, how to think, how to do anything but cling to Nico. He sighed into Nico's lips.

Nico Di Angelo had given him a kiss.

And it tasted so much better than chocolate.


End file.
